Beware of Servage Hosting.

We had been using Servage as the back end of a hosting service that I operate. The way reselling hosting services works is pretty simple: you pay a lot of money to acquire a new customer, and then you recoup your money, typically in year 2. Servage has a very competitive hosting package, and for its affiliates, it offered a very powerful, scaleable interface.

About a week ago, Servage announced that it was ending its hosting reseller program, and oh, by the way, we will have your customers. So thats it. After spending thousands of dollars to acquire my customers, Servage will simply steal them.

I hope this post will warn others about how your company does business. You may have been with your rights, but not within your ethics.

What goes around, comes around Servage.

Surprisingly good results with 7Search

I've been experimenting with 7Search, as both an advertiser and as an "affiliate."

One of my business websites is a file sharing site with growing traffic. It currently gets about 1000 unique visitors per day, about about 2000 page views, and its growing at 50% per month.

I had been experimenting with monetizing the site using Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN). With YPN, I average about $1.25 per day. YPN, like Google, doesn't allow you to display any other advertisements that are generated by scanning content. So that means I can include static ads, but just not dynamically generated ads.

I have longed been disappointed with YPN's ability to target the users on my site. Somehow, all the ads are always for encryption products, which just doesn't fit. I've tried jiggling their settings, but still, encryption ads. So I've always felt that YPN was not letting me monetize the site in the best interests of myself and my users.

I signed up for 7Search, and decided to implement their "pay-per-text" ads. It's essentially a keyword linked to a page that displays a number of ad units. If a user clicks on an ad unit and stays on that site for at least 20 seconds, you get credit. I can configure pay-per-text so that only display the top 5 paying ad units.

I implemented 3 key words that have very high per click payouts. "Debt Refinancing," "Casinos" and "Free Ring Tones." The first two pay upwards of $1 - $2 per click. The latter still pays about .50 per click. I integrated the text ads into the website, and the results have been very good. Immediately, the Ring Tone text started receiving excellent hits and click throughs, and the others received enough traffic to make want to continue offering them.

After a week, the ads are generating an average of $5.50 per day. So I'm pleased with 7Search on the affiliate side.

On the Advertiser side, I started tracking clicks, and find that I'm actually getting some excellent results with 7Search. The keywords are much cheaper for my keywords than either Google or Overture, and I find that I'm getting a pretty good quality visitor, certainly worth the money that I'm spending. I've used other 3rd tier networks, such as Adbrite, GoClick, Miva and others, but have had very poor results with those services.

Your experience may be different, but in this age of rampant click fraud I am glad to have something positive to tell you about. If you're looking to move some money away from the Google monopoly, 7search might work well for you.

If you're interested in advertising on 7Search, click here to give me a little credit for telling you about it.

Be a 7Search.com Advertiser!

Split Personality -- Moderate Liberal is moving to ModerateLiberal.com

I don't mean to rock your world too much, but The Moderate Liberal is moving to Moderate Liberal.com. I thought it would be interesting to split my personality, from an SEO standpoint, just to see what happens to web traffic. Having a separate site will also let me do stuff that I can't or don't want to do here.

MyMountain will return to its normal human randomness, and despite the personality split you will probably still see a political rant now and again. But the idea is to bring more focus to the Moderate Liberal.

Bush wages War the Expense of America's poor and your children's future.

President Bush unveiled a $2.9 trillion budget today that gives the Pentagon a whopping $50 billion hike at the expense of basic domestic programs. While Bush can find unlimited funds to wage war, including $245 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan, he touts cuts for health research and heating subsidies for the poor.

I think most Americans can agree that something needs to be done about Washington's outrageous spending under George W. I think most Americans would also be willing to tighten their belts, and be willing to bite the proverbial bullet in order to put America on a fiscally responsible track.

But what Bush is doing is absolutely outrageous! Slashing and burning America while showing absolutely no restraint on his illegal war is totally insane.

Bush touted his fiscal blueprint as "protecting the homeland and fighting terrorism, keeping the economy strong with low taxes and keeping spending under control." He said after meeting with his Cabinet, "Congress needs to listen to a budget which says no tax increase, and a budget, because of fiscal discipline, that can be balanced in five years."

Bush is absolutely insane and bent on destroying this country that I love. What he is shallowly promising is that "In five years, this'll be someone else's problem." In five years, America will be $20 trillion dollars in debt, and that's when he says we'll stop decifit spending?

What I DO NOT hear Bush promising is that in 5 years, we will have won the war on terror. The world will be a safer place. America will be a stronger country. Even Bush can not make such impossible promises, but yet he can say with a straight face that in "5 years" the budget will be balanced. Bush thinks that Americans don't know the difference between his deficit spending and the DEBT which he proposes to keep growing for another 5 years.

Bush is proposing more of the same failed policies. He is pushing America closer to the edge of destruction, while making the world a more dangerous place.

Mr. Bush, in five years America will realize that you have forced it into bankruptcy. You Sir, are a traitor.

It's up to the Democrats to stop this. This is what we voted them into office for. Show some backbone, Democrats, and stop this insanity.